How to Read Charts

Reading a chart means answering four questions in order: what the axes show, which chart type you are looking at, which way the trend runs, and where the price levels are that have repeatedly stopped or turned the move. Volume and a single indicator come last, as confirmation. This page is the overview and the order to learn them in; each step below links to the guide that teaches it properly.

For the full step-by-step lesson in one place, with a worked example chart at every stage, read the deep-dive guide: how to read stock charts, step by step. That post is the detailed lesson; this page exists to put it in sequence with everything that comes after it.

The guides below take that same foundation and go one layer deeper on each piece, in the order a beginner is best served learning them. Work through them top to bottom, or jump to the one that matches what you are stuck on. Each guide is self-contained and illustrated, so you can read a single concept without losing the thread of the whole.

Everything here is educational. Chart reading describes how price has behaved in the past and present; it does not predict the future or constitute financial advice.